#ncga: Speaker Timmy, Gov. Pat reportedly SHOVED aide’s appointment to district court bench down chief judge’s throat
That’s the word we’re getting from deep inside the political machine in our state’s capital city. We reported earlier that an associate in the Law Offices of Speaker Timmy in Kings Mountain ran, and lost, a race for a District Court judgeship in November. This week, Gov. Pat McCrory appointed this young man to the district court bench, less than a month after his defeat at the hands of local voters. 
Well, we NOW hear that young Mr. Brackett, Speaker Timmy’s protégê, was appointed to that district court seat over the vehement objections of the district’s chief judge. I am told that Brackett was nowhere near the top of the list of recommendations for the appointment in that strongly Republican district.
Must be nice to have friends in high places.
The local paper reported that the local bar (read: the attorneys who know and work with lawyers and judges all the time) voted on 4 nominees to the newly created seat. The boy wonder came in 4th. SMH.
Well, I am not an attorney and I have no clue how that local bar association works but having watched the politically motivated endorsements or lack thereof of the ABA on the national level, I don’t think we can should just assume Moore’s pick isn’t better than the local bar’s would be.
It is true that a principled pick could be better, BUT, as a principled conservative attorney (vastly outnumbered by my liberal brethren), a District Court judge is not easily pigeonholed into a partisan label. They don’t make case law like appellate judges. They mainly handle traffic court, misdemeanor court, divorce court, bond hearings and the like. It’s important that they know and follow the law, listen to arguments, think critically and logically, and have a good temperament. The local lawyers that interact with them know those sorts of things. That he didn’t even finish 3rd says something. I have known very conservative judges who were awful, and moderate liberals who were great in that role (even if they would be terrible on a city council or in the legislature). This kind of appointment just stinks.
Mr. Page – seems risky as an ADA to take on publicly a soon to be member of the judiciary. Why take the risk?
First, he’s not a judge in the District in which I practice. Second, I think I allowed above for the possibility that he’ll be a good judge. I certainly don’t know. Never met the guy. But the lawyers that district have, and their message seems clear. I don’t begrudge anybody trying for their dream job. I hope to be a District Court judge myself someday. My criticism is for the Speaker and the Governor’s office who appointed him. But it’s not like anyone in Raleigh cares what I think.